Category: Design for Animation, Narrative Structures and Film Language

Week 9, Report Structure and Referencing

Harvard Referencing Conventions

Citing books, texts, films and other sources for bibliography

Title / Subtitle A research title can identify a main topic and a subtitle can qualify a specific area or focus for the research. Often it is helpful to create a question your research can answer or pose a problem the research aims to resolve.

Abstract An abstract is a short summary of your dissertation. You should briefly outline the research question you started with, the methods you used to answer it, and the results of your research. This is not a promotional piece, so you do not need to keep the reader in suspense – simply explain what you did.

Contents Page You should include a list of the contents of your report along with page numbers. Remember to give your chapters meaningful titles, do not simply use Chapter 1 Chapter 2 etc. You should also make sure that the contents list matches with the actual page numbers

Introduction The introduction should tell the reader what your research is about, explain the context in which you are working, state your research question, and outline the ways your writing will answer that question over the subsequent chapters. if your practice is central to the Critical Report, it is crucial that you place your work and the questions or ideas that motivate your work in the introduction to your assignment.

On the one hand consider what is going to spark an interest and curiosity about your work in your audience, on the other, the more precise you can be about the field of knowledge in which your research is situated the better.

Literature Review The purpose of writing a literature review is to present the sources you have used in the research to your readers. By doing this, you’re communicating several things:

Explaining the type of research you conducted, mapping your research showing where you started, which concepts you chose to focus on and where following those concepts brought you and where your work fits into the bigger picture explaining how your findings connect to the existing body of research on your topic.

Don’t just list and describe the sources you have read; respond to them, interpret them, and critically evaluate them. Keep in mind that you don’t have to agree with every source you use—in fact, exploring where your findings diverge from a source’s findings can be a strong point in your literature review and paper.

Chapters for main discussion In this section you will discuss all the key issues and strands that have consequence or relevance to your research enquiry. Provide a structure for a balanced argument and objective analysis of the subject with relevant materials, recognising established and contemporary theories surrounding your topic.

Structure your discussion into relevant chapters with suitable headings and sub-headings required. While each chapter may cover different subject matter it is important to maintain a connection to the overall research question or objective informing the reader of the relevance of that information.

In the discussion your voice and perspective should be heard but balanced and supported by recognised and reliable referencing and citation.

Conclusion This should sum up the findings of your research, and clearly explain your overall position. It should bring closure to your discussion alongside broader meaning and any implications for other topics, you can also identify areas where your work could be extended.

You may want your reader to think differently, question something, or perform some action or make a recommendation of what your reader should “do” with the information.

Avoid introducing new topics or additional content not previously discussed.

Bibliography You must include a bibliography. This is a complete list of the texts (including books, articles, websites, etc.) that you have referred to in writing your dissertation. This list should be Harvard referenced. You may also require a filmography, image list etc.

Week 8, Literature Reviews and Writing Approaches

Whether for a report, a journal paper, a dissertation or thesis these components are a critical consideration in successfully communicating to a reader.

A clear understanding of the research topic undertaken and why.

What information, data, learning informed the research and findings

A conclusion restating objective and connecting findings,

State your purpose

Synthesize rather than restate the material. If you presented an argument, show the reader how all the points fit together to form a logical conclusion.

Add perspective

If you’ve come across a fantastic quote in your research that didn’t quite make it into the essay, the conclusion is a great spot for it. Including a quote from one of your primary or secondary sources can frame your thesis or final thoughts in a different light. This can add specificity and texture to your overall argument.

Consider the clincher

At the end of the essay comes your closing sentence or clincher. As you think about how to write a good conclusion, the clincher must be top of mind. What can you say to propel the reader to a new view on the subject? This final sentence needs to help readers feel a sense of closure. It should also end on a positive note, so your audience feels glad they read your paper and that they learned something worthwhile.

Week 6, Read the following paragraph and paraphrase the authors point in my own words.

Horness Roe (2013, Animated Documentary) argues that authentic documentary images prove that events really happened, so the authenticity of documentaries is strongly linked to the concept of realism.

Week 5, Taxonomy for documentary

The Prelude to War can be classified as a documentary. Firstly, because the film has been recorded or created frame by frame. Secondly, it is a record of real events in the world, rather than the world completely imagined by the creator. Finally, it is presented to the audience, film festivals or critics as a documentary by its producer.

Bill Nichols writes that the the documentary ‘is depended on the specificity of its images for authenticity’.

By using animation, the film not only expresses the record of objective and real events, but also conveys symbols, visual associations, colors and other information.

Week 4, Experimental animation

the metamorphosis

The best animation of Florence Film Festival, the metamorphosis2d animation, tells a story about a person who, after getting up, returns to his dream and becomes a variety of insects, experiencing a series of events.

The theme of Metamorphosis: the transformation of human’s “inhuman” thought. When people’s “individuality” and self mind are ignored, it is inevitable to have “public” conflicts with people, leading to the destruction of fate. The true direction of Metamorphosis in Metamorphosis is the change of people’s life attitude, moral concept, values and existentialism. It warns people not to neglect self-awareness.

Week 3, Film Research

3D animated film, Spider-Man：Into the Spider-Verse

Act 1: The Exposition: This film tells how the ordinary high school student Miles Moras grew into a new generation of superhero after Peter Parker, the “Spider Man”, was killed by King.

Act 2: Rising Action: The most notorious criminal leader in this city has built a highly secret super collider, which opens the space and time channel to other universes. Spiderman from other universes and different versions also came to Miles’ world to face the coming doomsday crisis together.

Act 3: The Climax: The leading character, Spiderman Miles, never dared to face the crisis of doom, but gradually regained his confidence, broke through the limits of his own self, and faced the difficulties in the face of strong enemies until he defeated the enemy and saved the world

Act 4: Falling Action: Spiderman Miles, the protagonist, defeated the enemy, destroyed the shuttle, saved the world, and restored peace to the world. Spiderman from other universes gradually returned to their own universe.

Act 5: Denouement: Spiderman Miles faced the difficulties in the face of strong enemies until he defeated the enemy and saved the world.

Character:

1. Miles Morales (protagonist):

Miles is a black-skinned African-Latin American teenager, 1.57 meters tall, with bright brown-black eyes and black curly hair. He is still a skinny boy in high school because he lacks exercise in school. His arms and legs are very thin. Besides wearing school uniforms, he often wears hoodies, seven-point sports pants and red AJ1 shoes. His friendly personality can be seen from his facial features. There are no friends in school. People don’t care about him and don’t love him. Causing others to be timid and honest, paving the way for the final explosion of personality reversal to form a contrast, giving the audience a strong contrast, the key characters in the play, the end of saving the world to create a miracle, the play around him to start the narrative.

2. Peter Parker (Spider-Man of 616 Universes):

Spider-Man, who has traveled from 616 Universe, is already a lazy Spider-Man who is lazy, bodily, self-abandoning and idle all day. After knowing the crisis, he helped to train Miles Morales to face up to himself and take responsibility on his shoulders. During this period, he slowly found himself. He is the life mentor of the protagonist Miles. He trained Miles to let him have. Courage and self-confidence lay the groundwork for the miracle of ending.

3. Father Miles:

The father of the protagonist Miles is a policeman, tall and tall, but he is gentle and loving to Miles. He always protects Miles and enlightens Miles, because his father’s words to Miles make Miles face up to himself with confidence and courage and make a great reversal. Make miracles to save the world.

4. Jin Bing (villain):

Super villain, he built a highly secretive super-collider, which opened up the space-time access to other universes, leading from other universes, different versions of Spider-Man also came to Miles’world. The duel with Miles was defeated at the end.

Week 2, Influence and significance of montage theory system on modern 3d animation

Montage is the film editing art, which was the dialectics of perceptual thinking and rational thinking combined with traditional film editing techniques to create montage film editing art theory. Eisenstein was the perfecter and integrator of the theory of montage, his research and practice made montage far beyond the scope of film editing, making it a dynamic art of film expression. The research of Podovkin and Eisenstein on montage theory illustrates that Montage Film Editing Theory is the product of the combination of art and technology. Only the perfect combination of the two can create excellent films. Montage creates a new visual editing art. With this specific editing technique, the constraints of time and space in the narration process of the editing work can be completely released. Time and space of the film can be changed at any time through the editing of film clips to achieve artistic effects to express the content and meaning that you want to express.

Key words:

Montage, 3d animated film, film editing technology, camera language, narrative structure

Reference:

Hong, Y. D. (2020) ‘The role of montage theory in film artistry’, Audio-visual, (4), pp. 108-109.

Lin, X. Y. (2015) ‘Film art and technology based on montage theory’, Appreciation, 1(5), pp. 111.

Liu, Z. X. (2021) ‘Exploration of Chinese culture output in the game environment — Taking “Genshin Impact” as an example’, Public communication of science and technology, 13(8), pp. 112-114.

Chen, F, Y. (2020) ‘The Visual Paradigm Revolution of 3D Digital Animation Film — From Toy Story to Spiderman: A Parallel Universe’.